Hakkaisan Snow Chamber

Eat, buy, drink, see, and experience the Hakkaisan Snow Chamber.

Sake is aged for a long period of time in a snow storage facility that holds 1,000 tons of snow.

Storage in snow chambers produces sake with a mellow flavor.

Vegetables and other items are also stored in the open space. The museum also has a shochu cellar, a café, a store, and a kitchenware store.
Visitors can enjoy the unique food and encounter with the food culture of Uonuma while experiencing the life and food culture of the snow country.
We hope that through the Hakkaisan Snow Chamber, we can convey the charm of the food and culture of the snow country to many people, and to the future.

What is a snow room?

The snow chamber is a “natural refrigerator” born from the wisdom and ingenuity of the people of snow country.

The snow that fell in abundance in winter was stored by covering it with a roof of thatch or straw, and records of this practice date as far back as the “Chronicles of Japan.”
It was used throughout the snow country until the 1950s, when electric refrigerators became widespread, and was also widely used at home as a means of preserving vegetables and other items during the winter months.

Snow can sometimes be a nuisance to people living in snow country, where snow falls taller than our height and winters are long and harsh.
However, our predecessors have made the most of the power of snow to nurture a lifestyle and food culture unique to the snow country.
One such example is the “snow chamber.

In the days when there were no refrigerators like today, “snow chambers,” which maintained low temperatures throughout the year, were not only used to preserve vegetables and other,vegetables and foodstuffs from freezing in the winter and selling snow and ice in the summer.